Halo Reach - Untold Prologue
by MDAM
Summary: After a strange seeing a strange light whilst she was out running Beth Milton finds herself injured on a mysterious world far from home in both in space and time, after stumbling upon the Spartan III project she is immediately drafted into service due to her combat skills and lack of ties to this brave new world. Note rated M for graphic details. The Anomaly Series (R1) [FemSix]
1. Arrival

**MDAM – Thought this was originally inspired by another piece on the site **_**this is still an original piece**_**, note that I don't own halo or any characters in the halo universe. (**_Italics_** are thoughts)**

C1 : Arrival

I woke up to the sound of gunfire, the smell of burnt cordite hung in the air. My body was numb. _What happened? Where am I? _I tried to move, it hurt, my joints were stiff, and I noticed that I had a sharp pain in my chest. _Probably broken ribs. _I tried to think back to the last thing I remembered. _I was running, 10kg on my back, doing a 4-mile run, and then I saw a light, was the hell was that? _

After lying on my back for just over 5 minuets trying to comprehend what had happened I attempted to stand up. The pain was antagonising, I could feel the broken ribs dig into my skin. "FUCK!" I exclaimed as I tried to curse the pain away. I looked down at my clothing and I dusted off the almost soot material, I was wearing a white (now grey t-shirt), black soft shell jacket, black cargo trousers, black socks and shoes and a _Wait, were is it!_ Then I caught the black rucksack in the corner of my eye, it rested near the top of a black stone ridge, the world around my was bleak, covered in a black rock and sand, the sky was over cast

"At least its not raining." I muttered to my self, trying not to wince at the sharp pain at my side. I limped over to my bag, combing my messy, long rosewood red hair and reached down to the black trespass bag. I un-zipped the bag pockets and storage poaches and tipped their contents onto the floor. I noticed the cans of food I used as weight were dented, luckily my wallet was there too. Then I checked my pockets and found my Black IPhone 4 with its cheap little £1 shop headphones. I sorted the cans into their respected types and made a mental note. _10 cans of tinned tomatoes, 3 cans of tuna 7 cans of chickpeas 5 cans of kidney beans 3 cans of pea and 2 cans of green beans. What a feast._

I opened my wallet and checked its contents. _£24.01 in cash_. Then I checked the cards, all I had was my DVLA provisional licence, _God, that is one shit picture, _I thought, as I looked a the photo booth picture of myself, the girl in the picture had green eyes, dark red hair, pale skin and thin lips, her head wasn't wide and she had a braid on her left side, it was like looking into a mirror. The card had her name, Bethany Johanna Andrews Milton, her date of birth, the 11th of the July 1997. Along with that she had two coffee cards and her SQA examination card. She packed the contents in her left pocket, she plugged in her headphones and put on some music, _shit, no signal. _She thought. As my music played she packed the rucksack and heaved the 10kg on my back and began my march toward the gunfire, _this could get interesting._

I trudged onto a ridge and looked over what looked like two opposing teams fighting, both groups wore the same uniform with the slight difference being one was wearing armour with bits of red and the other with bits of blue. _Great a training exercise. _She noticed that they were training in a quarry of some sort, the black rock wall had been blasted away and a concrete structure stood in the middle, next to it she saw an aircraft of some sort, _it had to be a VTOL to get in quarry _I noted. I began to crawl back from the quarry side, but to no surprise, my luck failed as some debris came loose and fell into the quarry.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK." I began saying repeatedly as I got on my feet and began to run, my chest on fire as the dislodged bone fragments jiggled under my skin.

The alarm sounded "All personnel this is not a drill, there is a intruder on base, I repeat this is not a drill." The monotone drone announced. Then my heart skipped a beat "Intruder should be shot on sight." I came to a halt, _well shit. _I thought. _Here's me thinking my day couldn't get worse. Now Beth, think, you perform well under pressure don't you? _I looked at the floor and dug into the black soot and pebbles, until I was covered head too in the dark mineral.

"Who do you think this intruder is?" She heard, male American, sounds like it belongs to someone under the age of 25 "If there is one. For all we know it could be an animal or something."_ Yes just an animal nothing more, now go away._

Then the other talked, it was a female voice, it sounded Eastern European, maybe Hungary or from the Yugoslavia region. "Tom, do you ever shut up, for all you know she could be here waiting for us."

"Catharine do you see anyone, do you hear anyone, do you smell any..." He stopped, his voice a bit louder _shit they are getting closer. _Then it dawned on me why they had stopped _MY BAG. _"I'll check the bag" He said "Kat, keep me covered."

I could feel his footsteps coming closer to me until he was nearly on top of me. _Aw screw it. _I sprung from under the dust standing up and grabbing his rifle and aimed into the air as we began to fight, initially I kneed him in the crotch. And then elbowed him in the face, he squeezed the trigger due to the pain and a rain of bullets fired out of the weapon. Kat who was holding a scoped rifle was trying to aim a shot at me, the only thing running through my mind was _SSSSHHHIIIIITTTEEEE._

He grabbed my wrist and came in for a punch, I twisted my right hand, releasing me and I ducked, only to then ram my head into his chest, but to my surprise it didn't break a rib, so instead I place a punch to the diaphragm in an attempt to wind him. The was wearing little armour, only covering his forearms, shoulders, chest and some of his legs, his chest plate had TOM-B292 stencilled in the top corner. His armour had a no colour apart from black whilst his companion CATHERINE-B320 had blue highlights on her armour._ She must have been on the exercise_. I noticed at his side he had a pistol, I grabbed it as I tackled him, after taking another cheap shot, his resistance loosened and fell to the floor, once there I rolled over and smashed the butt of the gun against his head, causing him to be knocked out. _ Well that went better than expected, now to deal with missy over there,_

I rolled over and pointed my gun at her face, she had black hair, like her comrade and had sharp blue eyes, and to say the least, she seemed surprised. _Who is the soldier now? _I smiled to myself. _Just cause' I have broken bones and stiff joints, doesn't mean I couldn't kick ass. Now where was I?_ "Okay, lets do it like this, I'll ask you six questions and you'll give me six answers. And then you get to do the same."I said giving her once look over, she had an emblem on here chest piece with four letters underneath, UNSC, the last time I checked this wasn't what the United Nations Security Council did for a living. "First off, who are you?"

Her scared face had turned into a frown. "Chief petty officer Catherine B320, United Nations Space Command." She replied.

"Where the hell am I?" I asked.

She was taken slightly aback from this, obviously expecting that a person would know where they are. "I'm afraid that's classified."

I tightened my eyes "Does it look like I care?"

"That's your third question, and the answer is no." she smirked

"Okay, why was I shoot on sight, not capture and interrogated?"

"You where trespassing on Classified UNSC soil. Soil that technically doesn't exist." She noticed she said too much and quickly closed her mouth.

"What is the UNSC?"

Her smirk turned into a face of pure confusion, but it was a question so she answered. "The UNSC is the military, expeditionary and scientific body of the United Earth Government."

_Final question, come on think of a good one. _"What is the date?"

"The 7th of January 2544." _What. The. Actual. Fuck._ My face dropped, tears began to flow down my eyes. _Everyone I know and love is dead. No that's not possible, this is some sort of prank. Maybe a dream? _But at that moment I felt the pain in my ribs. _Nope, not a dream._

"Are you okay, you look like you took a gravity hammer to the face."

Then in a burst of rage "NO, I'M NOT OKAY, I JUST FOUND OUT THAT MY LOVED ONES ARE DEAD AND SIX FOOT UNDER AND THERE IS JACK SHIT THAT I CAN DO ABOUT IT." This took Kat off guard.

"Okay, question two, what is your name?" she said soothing matter, but still holding her gun towards her head.

"Beth-B-Be-ethany Johanna-na Andrews Milt-ton." I stuttered. _Calm down Beth, get a hold of yourself woman._

"Okay Beth, could you tell me your age?" Kat said

"17, biologically." she gulped

"Where do you come from?" she inquired.

"Scotland, to be more specific Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway."

"And you have never hear of the UNSC or UEG?" she queried.

I just shook my head, still holding the pistol towards her face. "That's your forth question by the way." I looked up and make a sorry attempt of a smile.

Kat looked uncomfortable, to her it probably didn't make any sense. There was a long pause both of them looking at each other. "Where did you learn moves like that? It's not that easy to take down a Spartan like that, you made easy meat off of him." She said breaking the awkward silence.

"I got to red belt in Tea-Kwon-Do when I was a little younger, learnt CQC and few take downs."

"Beth, Final Question, and you better answer truthfully, what's your Date of Birth." Just as she said that she heard a voice come through an earpiece.

"May I?" Kat asked.

I nodded. "That's 7 questions you know."

Kat touched her ear to open a channel.

"Sir I have the intruder at gun point, just as she has me." She paused "No sir, she knocked out Tom and she is now using his pistol, it's trained at my head sir." She looked into my eyes again. "Date of Birth?"

My mouth went dry. "11th of July" I said, only to have her had jester the universal signal of '_And?_' I swallowed a the lump in my throat. "1997."

At that moment Kat spoke into the mic "Did you get that sir." She waited a second for the reply. "Yes sir, I'll bring her in for questioning."

At that moment four more soldiers came over the hill pointer their rifles towards me. _Well Bollocks._


	2. X-rays and Escape

**MDMA – This chapter will be out a bit early as I wont be in the country on Sunday, hope you enjoy.**

C2: X-rays and Escape

Beth sat in the back of the vehicle called a 'Warthog', two of the soldiers where sitting in the front, while Kat, an unconscious Tom, another soldier and herself where riding in the passenger compartment in the back. The drove down the sides of the quarry, Beth was observing the landscape and spotted a sign, it read 'UNSC/ONI Camp Currahee, Onyx.' _Fitting name. _Beth thought to her self before she looked down at her knuckles, they were bleeding, her nails filled with the fine soot like dust, her hands had scars on them.

The engine stopped, and she looked up at Kat for confirmation, Kat nodded. Beth turned to her left and hopped onto the concrete, Kat following along with the other soldier who shared the back and also the soldier riding shotgun. Beth smoothed off her clothing, she grabbed her bag and faced the tall grey concrete monolith that stood before her. With another quick look at Kat and the others she made her way to the front entrance, inside were two more soldiers in the same armour and holding the same rifles she looked at the name plates, _James and Matthew_ she noted. The two soldiers opened the glass doors leading into a small grey lobby. On the floor was the insignia of something called the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, _They must be the ones running the place._

They walked through until they came across two elevators, Matthew pressed the button and in a matter of seconds the doors opened and they walked in. _Out of the frying pan and into the fire_ Beth thought to herself. Suddenly she felt her blood rush to her head from the rapid acceleration of the elevator, she was surprised to find she didn't faint. The doors opened into a long well lit corridor, the walls were a sickly turquoise and the smell of disinfectant combed her nose. She looked to her left and saw the letters 'MEDICAL LEVEL'. _Great, being poked and prodded, just what I needed._ They walked down the corridor for about fifty meters and opened a door on their left. It opened to a 20x10 meter room that was five meters high, the room had a one-way mirror observation room that overlooked machinery and a operating table. There were also three members of medical staff getting the equipment ready, whey were wearing surgery clothing. Then the door closed behind her, Beth sighed and was waved over by one of the staff.

She was about 5'10" and had pale white skin and sharp green eyes and what looked like ginger hair under her surgeon's hat. The she spoke. "Please remove you clothing and put on that patient robe." She glanced over to a chair which had the robe folded on the seat.

Beth removed her cloths and did as the doctor ordered, she felt uncomfortable in doing so however, she had a feeling people where looking her over behind the mirror, so she did so as quickly as possible and turned to face the surgeon. "Now what?" Beth queried. The surgeon simply waved her hand over the table.

Beth took a deep breath and lay down, her skin and the metal touched, a shiver went up her spine and goose bumps formed all over her body. The medical staff brought over a scanner and positioned it at her above her feet. Then it activated, a warm wave of light passed over her body, noting everything happening in her body. Beth looked over to her left and saw the medical staff prepare a needle, _Why needles, hasn't learning my loved ones are dead enough torture, _Beth thought. She felt a slight nick as the metal spike entered her lower arm. The medical staff then proceeded to remove her robe down to her abdominals and started to use a strange gel, initially cold when it hit my bruising but slowly heated up, and most importantly began to numb the pain. I looked back over to my left and saw the tube that had once been filed with my blood had now been filled with a clear blue liquid. Her body went numb as the medicine took over her body. _Damn, sedatives._

* * *

><p>Beth awoke to a grey ceiling looking down upon her she looked to her left and saw more bleak colour, this time it was a grey black chair and a grey and black chair. There was no window, but a metal lamp on her desk produced the light. She tried to sit up on her bed, the pain in her chest decided to put her back in her place. <em>What I would give for those painkillers again. <em>She looked at herself, she was wearing a black cargo fatigue shirt with a white UNSC stuck symbol on her left-breast, she was wearing black combat boots and black cotton cargo trousers. She looked under her shirt where the pain had emanated, she had a white bandage wrapped around her breasts and padding on her left side. She rubbed her hand over the padding, but as soon as she touched it she removed it with pain. _Fuuuuck, this is worse than I remember._

After waiting a few minuets, _it felt like a few hours,_ Beth had plucked up the courage to try sitting up. The pain was still there but Beth didn't yield and she swung her legs around and attempted to stand up. She nearly fell flat on her face. Her legs were so wobbly, they felt like jelly and they were shaking but she managed to struggle over to her desk. On her desk was a note, held by a by a small pot of pills. _Take one every 3 hours and you'll be back in action within a week_. Signed _Doctor Neustade._ Beth grabbed the pot and pulled out a pill, she looked around and for her bathroom. She picked up a glass and filled it with water, popped the pill into her mouth and gulped down her drink.

She left her en suite and made herself to the door. She pulled at the handle, but it was locked. Outside she heard the chuckles of what she guessed were two soldiers. One of them spoke in a cockney accent "Sorry love, but you aint goin anywhere until the Boss Man arrives." Beth was, to put it bluntly, pissed. She had been imprisoned with out as much of a reason than you where trespassing on the land of some military organisation she had never heard of. But how long would it be until this 'Boss Man' would show up, was unknown, she had to do something.

She ran her hands through her hair then she felt the metal that was a hairpin. _Nice._ She thought as she removed it from her hair, searching for another she couldn't find another. _They should have thought that I might try something like this. _She looked around the room, looking for other tools that could aid her in her escape. She took a razor in the toilet and removed the blade. She grabbed some flossing sting and a toothbrush and took it to her desk. Beth began to use the razor blade to remove the brush fibres from the plastic, after wards he used the razor to carve a small slit in the head of the brush to grip the floss. She began to thread the floss through the holes in the body of the razor and began to use it to grip the razor to the body of the brush. Once she was done, she had something similar to a knife.

She went into the bathroom and grabbed the light bulb and stuck it into her pocket. She took her hairpin and snapped it in two, bending one slightly she then turned to the door. Sticking the flat pin into the lock sideways she stuck the bent one and began to pick at the key lock. I took her a couple of seconds but she heard the first tick noise. She stopped to listen to what was happening out side, the two soldiers were talking. _Nice. _Beth thought before getting back to work. Seven ticks later she had unlocked the door. Slowly sliding it to the unlocked position she grabbed her makeshift blade and took the light bulb out of her pocket.

_Three, two, one, MARK. _She thought, she pulled the handle down and pulled the door open quickly and with some speed rammed the light bulb into the open visor of the soldier and ramming her elbow into the face of the other, knocking him out cold. The first soldier, who luckily had his eyes closed, had a bulb impact his face. He was about to scream but Beth quickly covered his mouth and made it into a mere muffle. She then took her makeshift blade to the soldier's throat.

"Don't move a Fucking muscle, asshole, otherwise you will end up worse than your mate there." She whispered. In response all he did was nod. "Good, err, Steve, yeah I'll call you Steve." She dropped the prison shank and grabbed his combat knife. _This is so much better then that piece of shite._ She thought to herself. _Now to get out of here._ She walked him over to a door with a key code on it. She picked up his arm and whispered, "Type your access code." First he hesitated, but only to feel the knife press harder against his throat, Steve quickly regretted his disloyalty and punched in his four-digit code. "Thanks, love." She said sarcastically before smashing the pommel into his fore head, rendering him unconscious.

She pulled his body into her room along with his comrade, and took off their armour and put it on herself. She attached to pistols to her sides picked up the SMG and Marksman Rifle. She took the ammunition and grenades she had on them. She turned to leave the room, but decided to add insult to injury and put the soldiers in each other's arms in her bed with the cover over. She grabbed her phone and took a picture. And off she went, keeping an eye on her surroundings. Keeping her eyes on her goal, freedom.

She came up to the elevators. Two soldiers were guarding the way. _Great now I need and alias._ She looked at her upper arm and saw she was a Sargent. _Sargent… Kelly… Andrews. Yeah, Sgt Kelly Andrews of the UNSC Marine Corps. _"Corporals" she said. The two of them were similarly clad in their armour.

"Sargent." they replied giving a salute. "Going up." They said mockingly.

She returned the salute in a mocking manner. _Wow, first time I'm returning the salute, I could get used to this. I'm usually the Cadet saluting some officer._ "Aye, up." She replied.

She stood in the metal box, and as the doors began to close she waved at the two men. They turned towards each other, they seemed to notice her guise. _All these damn weapons_ she thought. Their expression was shock, she managed to slip past them, and she was already escaping. Luckily for her, the doors closed before they could get to her. _Close call. Never drop your disguise that soon._ She pressed the button for the ground floor. _Geeze, 50 floors under ground, which explains the lack _of_ windows. _Around Basement level 5 the elevator stopped and the alarm was sounded. She heard a voice come out of the elevator controls. "Miss Milton, please stop what you are doing, there is no where you can run, we will find you."

She smirked._ Looks like I'm climbing out. _Beth found the emergency service hatch and popped it open with her rifle. A small ladder slid down and she climbed out of the elevator. She looked around, trying to find another ladder of some sort. _Nothing._ She sighed. _Looks like I'm doing it the hard way. _She grabbed the main elevator cable and began to rope climb up. _Thank God they put gloves in combat uniform, otherwise my hands would be a mere oily pulp._

She kept climbing and around B1 her wounds began to sting. _Fuck this wound. Fuck this climb. Fuck this base and its personnel. Fuck the UNSC. Fuck my luck. _She kept thinking those thought until she got to the ground floor. There was a bit of a ledge where she could grab. And in a big leap of faith Beth threw herself over. She grabbed the ledge and hung there. _If it only takes an insult for my luck to kick in, maybe I should do it more often. _Beth attempted to climb up, her hands covered in oil and made it a tedious process. But in time she made it. She had mere centimetres of footing between her ending in the black abyss below and staying alive.

Beth clawed her hands into the gaps of the elevator door and began to heave it open. She could feel the stitches under her padding begin to strain. But in a matter of moments she made a gap big enough for her to get through, as soon as she entered the lobby she trained her rifle into her surroundings. _Reminds me of my paintball sessions. But this time the paint is metal, and traveling around 340 meters a second. _Beth looked around and saw two soldiers patrolling, she took out a grenade, labelled that she guessed what a flash-bang, she checked for a label saying magnesium or something like that. _Just what the doctor ordered. _She thought, pulling the pin and rolling it to the soldier's feet. Beth closed her eyes and saw the flash behind her eyelids. She let out a sigh and knocked out the one of the staggering soldiers with the butt of the rifle._ Nice._

She looked outside and saw groups of soldiers patrolling the area, and most importantly she saw the VTOL. She grabbed the other soldier by the neck, put her rifle on her back and pulled out one of her pistols. She turned to her captive. "Now listen, I don't want to hurt anyone, but if you try anything sneaky I shall not hesitate to put you six feet underground, understood." She said gripping his neck tightly. "UNDERSTOOD." She said again. This time he nodded frequently. "Good, now calm down. Your mate aint dead, just out cold." Her voice had changed into a smoother tone.

She held him by the scruff of his neck and they walked out of the lobby together, the other groups didn't seem to notice. _Thank god for that. _She thought, she opened it up and chucked the soldier inside, and quickly shut the hatch again. He looked at her strange, his face was covered in fear. She walked past him, jamming her rifle into the head of the soldier. She picked him up and buckled him in. She tied his hands and feet together and made sure he couldn't escape. She got into the cockpit, and looked over the controls. "Looks easy enough." She said to herself sarcastically. "It's like riding a bike, that flies with VTOL capabilities, and is 10 times more complex then a MRK 1 Tutor plane I use with the Cadets."

She sat down, buckled in and started to go over pre flight procedures. Though it was a rough check because this craft was relatively alien to what she was used to the basics were the same. She attempted to fire up the engine but it wouldn't budge. _Cunt! _She thought to herself. Then suddenly over the radio came a very stern voice, "Well done, Miss Milton, I am to say the least surprised you made it this far, but I am afraid the time for fun is over and I require you to come back to the building, the Pelican is surrounded and it won't fly." He said. "Oh and welcome to the Spartan-III Programme, Beth B-312."


	3. Review

**MDAM- Hey guys hope you enjoy the new chapter, please don't be afraid to send me any reviews to point out mistakes or to send me possible story directions. MDAM out**

C3: Review and Initiation

_**1730 hours, 10 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Camp Currahee, Coronal Ambrose's Office.**_

"I take it you read my file." Beth asked.

"I must say, Miss Milton, that someone outside of the military has such a combat ready profile." Coronal Kurt Ambrose said. "You were in the 1153 Squadron ATC, where you received the rank of Sargent, you have one of the best marksman scores of all of the Cadets, including army, navy and marine cadet forces. You learnt to fly solo, you have training in radio communications and you have received the level of master cadet as well as attended a master of instruction course." He looked up from the paper.

"Sir, remember she took out one of your Spartans." Chief petty officer Mendez added.

"Yes, that surprised us, they are supposed to be trained killers and an non-augmented teenager took one out. I have to admit that is impressive. That along with the fitness report we got from Doctor Neustade shows us that you are physically superior to the average human, with a bleep test score around twelve, the ability to lift an above average weight in dumbbell, squat and weightlifting tests, you would make a perfect candidate for this program, which begs me to question, why did you accept my offer?" The Coronal asked

"Sir, in truth do I really have an option. I am either going to be shot or locked in some dark hole if I didn't choose this, and to be honest its like choosing between expensive red wine and piss water, to put it bluntly." She replied.

The two looked at each other and nodded. "Thank you for your time Miss Milton, that will be all." He held out his hands, inside were two rank tapes, Petty Officer second class, the equivalent to sergeant in the UNSC marines and army.

She took them and saluted. "Thank you sir."

"The lance corporal shall escort you to the mess hall." He said returning the salute. The two walked out and the doors closed. Kurt's' smile turned to a neutral expression. He turned towards the NCO. "Chief I can't believe ONI has authorised this. I mean you cant expect me of all people to allow her to go through the procedures, I been through them and I almost wanted to kill Halsey and yourself for putting me through it."

"I know sir, but orders are orders, she is more likely to survive the procedures then you, John or any of the other Spartan-II's, her genetic immaturity compared to the rest of humanity makes it more likely that her body would accept the augmentations. She is so unique that Halsey wanted to run tests on her to predict human evolution or something like that, and that could have been much worse. But at least it would be safer this time with advancements in technology."

"But so soon after getting drafted, she has only been here for just over two days and she is going to be augmented within a week. This level of crazy makes me think someone in ONI is becoming desperate."

"It's times like this that this that I hate agreeing with you."

* * *

><p>The two of them walked down the corridor towards the mess hall, Beth was to the left of the lance corporal. He finally spoke up. "So, ma'am, I take it that you are the new Spartan we all heard of."<p>

"That would be me." Beth said fastening her final tape to her epaulets.

"Aren't you a bit, you know." He glanced up and down her body. "Old to become a Spartan."

"I am afraid that that information is classified."

"Okay." He paused, thinking of a new question. "What is your name?"

"Beth." She replied.

"Let me guess the rest is classified." He said. Beth simply turned her head and nodded as they entered the mess hall. In front of them was a large room filled with three hundred Spartans eating dinner. The two turned to face each other. He saluted. "Enjoy your gruel ma'am."

"I cant wait." She replied giving a salute back before turning about and heading towards the aluminium serving area. She was given a black looking meat stew; _I bet that there isn't a single bit of meat in this_, and some white mashed potato. She turned to face the hall and looked for an empty space, to her luck she found an empty table and began to tuck into her "food". She noticed a couple of eyes darting her way, _guess that's to be expected being the new guy._ She though the food wasn't at a Michelin Star level she was famished and with the aid of some water had nearly finished her food.

She heard some chairs being pulled around the table and she looked up to see seven figures had sat down. She glanced at their shirts and noticed that Kat, and a slightly damaged Tom had sat down, along with a Lucy, a James, a Min, an Adam and a Matthew. They all looked around eighteen or twenty but when Beth looked at their files she saw that they were no older then ten or eleven. "May I help you?" Beth asked.

Lucy was the first to speak up. "Hi, we noticed you were new here so we wanted to ask how you were settling in."

Taken aback by Lucy's sudden forwardness Beth hesitated. "Fine, I guess." She said indecisively.

"Sorry a bout Lucy, she is a little, keen." Adam said. "So what's your name?" Beth replied be pointing to her left breast pocket where it was white on black.

"You can read I hope." Beth jested. Adam went a bit red. "And if you cant Adam, its Beth, pleasure to meet you all."

Matthew piped up. "No, the pleasure is ours, this is the first time we have seen a new recruit in ages, I hope you don't find the boots you are filling, to be, too big." He said with a slight Scottish accent.

"So we have bee discussion for the passed two days on how you, a non-augmented girl, kicked Tom's ass and could have taken Kat's life."

"Well that's easy, you don't go check a random bag without checking your surroundings."

"But I did." Tom complained.

"Sorry, all of your surroundings." She corrected, the table now in laughter as Tom slumped back into his seat with his arms crossed. "Also I think Kat did the right thing and not shoot me as Tom could have been hit and died. Though she probably wasn't expecting me to be proficient with a firearm."

All the eyes diverted towards Kat. "What, she looked like she came right out of a gym!"

"You thought a person that somehow managed to make it onto Onyx couldn't use a fire arm, any innie that would have half a brain cell would come packing at least be able to use a gun." Tom said, shifting the conversation away from him.

"Speaking about guns," Lucy asked, "what is your preference?"

Beth realised she had no idea a bout these future weapons, _Balls, I guess I should stick to the truth._ "I like antiques, the 5.56mm L98 Cadet Rifle. It has mechanisms within the butt and body, making it compact. It's cousin the SA80 A2 was used in Afghanistan in the war in the beginning of the twenty-first centaury. These weapons can get under slung 40mm grenade launchers or shotguns along with the ability to attach holographic sights." Not to Beth's' surprise this took the Spartans by surprise, someone who preferred to use a gun over five hundred years older then their new space guns.

"You like that dinosaur?" James said.

Beth turned her head towards the Spartan. "Yes I do, it is a reliable weapon that has been used in many years of war, from the troubles in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other non-UK engagements. It was used from the mid 1980's towards the end of the 2020's, I believe they were reliable." She then gave a quick smirk putting him in his place. Beth felt surprisingly calm, she was never really used to be the talk of town but right now she was enjoying it.

She finished up her meal, handed in her dishes and made her way to her room. It was only six but she was exhausted, the pain medication she had been given was to last her another four days. Yes it was effective at numbing the pain, the increased fatigue meant she could barely make it past eight. She grabbed a glass of water, sat down at her desk and pulled out her phone, a pen and a notepad. She began to write down a note of what was going on, only to then go and write whatever, scribbling something about some runners, a race. By the time it was seven she had already forgotten about what she had written and waddled to bed, curled up and slept.

* * *

><p><em><strong>0600 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar)  Onyx, Camp Currahee, Floor B5, Room 98**_

Beth's alarm went off and she jumped out of her bed, she took a quick two-minuet shower and got changed into her UNSC fatigues, she slid her tapes into the correct position on her shoulder. She walked back into the bathroom and sorted out her hair, she tied it up into a bun. She looked into the mirror, gave herself another onceover, took a painkiller and made her way down to the mess hall.

"Morning, Beth." A familiar Eastern European voice said. As she joined Beth on their way down the corridor.

"Kat." She replied, giving a simple nod of recognition.

"I'll take it you would want to join us on todays exercise."

"Don't you think I would be a burden, considering I am not soldier or combat expert?"

"What do you think the point of a training exercise is Beth, if not to train." She replied shooting down her argument. "Plus Lucy has taken a liking to you, we aren't the most talkative bunch you know and well, Lucy is well, Lucy." She said raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah but what about Tom, isn't he bound to have a grudge." Beth asked. "I did kind of bust his balls, both literally and figuratively."

"He is the forgiving type, and very few of us are." Kat said. The conversation ended there.

* * *

><p><em><strong>0800 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar)  Onyx, Pelican over Spartan training area.**_

Beth was suited in something called an ODST BDU, the armour that covered all of her body. It was coloured tungsten black like the gun in her hands. It was a M390 Designated Marksman Rifle but the Spartans called it a DMR, it was a single shot bullpup air-cooled rifle that fired 7.62×51mm rounds. It had a magazine that contained fifteen rounds of smokeless ammunition. Her rifle had been fitted with interchangeable thermal optics and regual zoom scope. She was sat in the cargo hold of the Pelican she tried to hijack, on the port side sat her team, Foxtrot team, which contained Tom, Adam, Min, Lucy, Kat and Beth. On the starboard side sat Echo team, which contained James, Matthew, Ellen, Peter, Cameron and David.

Beth shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she noticed she was the only one not wearing something called SPI armour, a stronger more advanced armour compared to what she had. So along with being less trained for combat and the fact she was wearing inferior armour in comparison, she was going to have to rely on her gut, what knowledge she had and her only true advantage, her luck. Beth couldn't put her finger on it but she would always have a way to get away with risks, whenever she had to flip a coin, nine times out of ten she would get it right, now she was hoping that the risks she would take today in the exercise would pay off.

"You okay Beth." Kat asked over TEAMCOM.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous, how long till we are dropped off?"

"One minuet. Don't worry. We'll win. We always do." Kat chuckled.

"Yeah, but they have the advantage."

"So what, they'll underestimate, and trust me I have seen you fight, you will do fine, plus you can see things in a different light, having a different perspective will aid us." She said.

"I hope you are right." Beth murmured as she gave her equipment a quick once over before the exercise start. She quickly checked he sidearm, a M6G personal defence pistol, everything seemed fine. She counted her grenades, three smoke, three fragmentation and three concussive. Before she new it, her HUD flashed green.

Kat spoke up on TEAMCOM. "Alright, it's Showtime!" they all stood up and jumped out the pelican.


	4. Exercise

**MDAM- Well I managed to squeeze in enough time to get this chapter in (I hope this doesn't screw up my prelims) , this is due to a busy weekend (the time I generally write) full of road marching with the ATC, I probably unable to complete this for Sunday, though next weeks Korra story as I am away at a wedding, it also doesn't help that exams are coming. All I ask for is that you guys don't rip your dicks off. MDAM out.**

C4: Exercise

_**0805 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Spartan training area (GR 340,214), Beach**_

Airman Jones spoke in a welsh accent. "Foxtrot ream you are go." And as she said that all six of them jumped out of the aircraft onto the Marram on a snow-white beach. It made a slight crunch as the weight of six soldiers crouched as they landed, instantly readying their weapons in a circular pattern. _We have no idea what Ambrose may have in store for us._ Kat thought as she pulled out a map.

"Okay, this is the plan." Kat started. "Echo team are landing on the far side of the map her." She pointed to a hill in the northeast of the map. She ran down her finger to a gorge to the southwest. "We set up a sniper position with Beth and Adam. Tom and Lucy, you two patrol the local area, if you spot the opposition we would like you to draw them into the gorge. Min and myself shall go around the area looking for the team again looking to draw them into the ambush. Clear."

"Clear." They all said. All but Beth.

"Petty Officer. Do you under stand the plan?"

"I do. Ma'am. However there is something else that I have in mind."

"Lets hear it."

"Laugh this off if it is crap, but why not use my use my lack of SPI armour to our advantage? Here is the plan." She started.

_**0815 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Spartan training area (GR 340,214), Forest, due west of Echo starting location**_

Matthew spoke up over TEAMCOM. "So how do you think they will do?"

"Who knows Matt." Replied James "They sure have the disadvantage as their combined experience is lower, but since she is not the same as us, she thinks different. Having a different perspective on the battlefield could be an asset to them. So to put it short Matt, I don't have a c…" James stopped as a loud explosion and a series of smaller explosions broke his train of thought. _What the hell was that? _James thought.

"And here was me thinking you wouldn't shut up." Jested Cameron.

"Could that have been the Pelican?" Peter suggested.

"I sure as hell hope not." James said as white smoke began to rise from the 'crash site'. "Lets move out, we head to the site of the 'crash' and see if there is anything wrong. Copy?" he asked, they all replied with a flash of green. "Go radio silent." And then the made for the smoke.

They trekked through the podzol forest for forty minuets, the ground was covered in a fine layer of orange needles, though it was January, here on Onyx it was just the start of autumn, back a Currahee you could already see your breath as you exhaled. The tall pine trees provided cover as the six Spartans slowly advance to the site of incident. The sky was overcast but the air was surprisingly still, this allowed Echo to hear out for anything. Suddenly they heard the loud screech of "HELP, Spartans, I Need Help." Strange ODST BDU clad woman shouted. _Is that Beth? No that would be stupid, who in their right minds would come straight in front of a group of Spartans unless they were desperate._

"Come close, slowly with you hands in the air." James ordered

"Ye-es ss-ir." The woman gulped. And then shouted "Yes sir." She had an American accent. _I guess that rules out Beth._ James thought as he noticed a limp and a splint was form around her leg, it was obviously broken. She was using a sniper rifle as a crude crutch and had a magnum on her magnetic holster. She stopped three meters before them and made a bad attempt at a salute. Her armour was covered in dirt_. _"Private Doe, Sir. We have problem sir. Our pelican…" She swallowed. "Our pelican suffered an engine problem, we need what ever medical supplies you have we have ODST's who are in need of a major dosage of bio-foam and…" She stopped again. "We have two dead, one other is aiding the best he could on four others and one other plus myself are looking for help, as you know, we are hours by pelican from Currahee."

James put his arm on the ODST's shoulder, and looked straight into her visor. "Good job Private, show us the way." He asked, she responded with a number of quick nods. She turned about and made her way to the crash site.

It took five minuets before Matt spoke up. "Private may I ask a question?"

"Go ahead sir." She responded.

"What are a group of ODST's doing out here anyway? We were the only ones on that Pelican."

"This was the Cornels idea sir. Send in a bunch of ODST's to spice things up a bit, especially for the new Spartan." She responded. James Chuckled to himself for a second. _That's a little mean of the Coronal. Picking on the new kid of the block._

"Fair enough." Matt replied as he ducked under a branch.

_**0905 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Spartan training area (GR 340,214), Forest, due west of Echo starting location**_

Kat lay down between Tom and Lucy; they were around one meter away from each other, as all the team lay with their rifles ready to pounce on echo. "Lets hope Beth's plan goes off without a hitch." Kat muttered under her breath.

Lucy replied, obviously hearing her with her enhance senses. "It's the best plan Kat, we all know that she isn't the most stealthy, so it is best that she isn't the ambush."

Kat sighed, and agreed with a nod. Her attention was suddenly changed from the conversation to the snap of a twig, a cough, three beeps and a flop as someone hit the deck. At that moment all of the Spartans stood up and shot. Taking out Echo team in the process.

_**0904 hours, 11 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Spartan training area (GR 340,214), Forest, due west of Echo starting location**_

Beth walked in front of Echo team. She used Min's sniper rifle as a crutch. _I can't believe that worked! _She thought. _They didn't even check my empty rank slides, what a fuck up. And to add insult to injury, that was one of the worst accents that I have ever attempted!_ She literally had no idea how her stunt pulled off. The entire pelican crash was a ploy. She located the opposition and sent a blip to Foxtrot, indicating that phase two should begin. That was the series of explosions to imitate the crashing of a pelican and the deploying of their smoke grenades to further the effect. Phase three, this is where Beth had to act, she had to pretend to be an ODST that came in to add an extra dimension to this exercise. Now she had convinced them she walked them into a trap. And that trap was ten meters in front of her.

She stood had on a branch, snapping it. She then stopped and began to fake cough. On her HUD were the IFF tags for her team. There were two short blips on Toms ID then one long one, then she 'fainted'. All of Echo's team ran forward to help her. This was cut short as a loud clatter of DMR stun rounds shut paralysed the unsuspecting soldiers. Then she spoke up. "Holy cow. That actually worked."

"Well done Beth, you did good. Especially that you have been stalking them, and on your fist exercise." Kat complimented.

"I'm such a natural, aren't I?" Beth laughed.

"True." Lucy said, obviously chuckling herself.

The Spartans on ground were moaning. Cameron laughed painfully. "Beth, you are one sneaky bitch." The rest of Echo laughed, before going into a small coughing fit. Foxtrot themselves were giggling. Beth turned and saw Tom flick on the SATCOM broadcaster to indicate exercise completion.


	5. Poking and Prodding

** MDAM- Huzzah, I am free of clogged weekends (for now) now I can get back to serving you guys a plate of original (and mediocre) literature. No more I have completed my prelims and with a newly updated Spotify playlist I shall activate beast mode and get these stories down on paper. Just for future planning (and to reduce the levels of dick ripping) I will have a period of slowed uploads from around the second and third week of April to the 21****st**** of May. This is due to my higher exams and I do kind of want to do well. Enough about me, to the chapter… MDAM out.**

C5: Poking and Prodding

_**0800 hours, 14 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Camp Currahee, Medical centre**_

Beth had no idea what she was doing down in the turquoise green room. _Probably another medical check up, I have travelled to another planet after all and who knows what parasites want to flood my system. _She shook her head and entered large medical amphitheatre, the back of the room was black and in the centre was a large white stage. On that stage was a number of medical personnel, a large aluminium operating table with black restraining straps, a number of strange machines and IV's.

She walked down the stairs on the left side of the amphitheatre past five rows of folded up seats, the air was filled with the hospital smell, the one that slapped you in the face like a fish the moment you open the door. One of the medical staff walked over, a checklist in her hand, Beth recognised the red hair. "Doctor Neustade."

"B-312. How are you?"

"A bit confused with the whole spiel, but fine anyhow. What's going on Doc?"

She handed out a checklist; on it read _Non-disclosure agreement _and _Enhancement agreement. "_You will have to sign this in order to go ahead with these procedures."

"Procedures?"

The doctor was taken aback. "They didn't tell you did they."

"I'm would guess that would be the case, what do they include?"

"What don't they include." They began to walk towards the operating table. "Lets start with the Carbide Ceramic Ossification. The grafting of ceramics to three per cent of you skeletal structure, makes near unbreakable bones, possible side effects include bone pulverisation. Further boosted by the application of the drug 8942-LQ99."

"That's a good start, what else is in your bucket of fun."

She continued as Beth sat down on the table. "Muscular enhancement injections; increases muscle density and reduces lactase recovery time. Side effects include a five per cent fatality due to cardiac mass expansion." Beth began to take he cloths off. "Catalytic Thyroid Implant; increases bone and muscle growth. Side effects include reduced sex drive and a possibility of elephantiasis." Beth put on her paper gown. Neustade continued. "88947-OP24 drug, more powerful than the Optical Capillary Reversal, and this one has no side effects. Boosts perception and allows for low light vision booster."

"A real diamond in the rough there." Beth replied.

"Finally the Superconducting Fabrication of Neural Dendrites. Increases reflex boost increase of three hundred per cent along with boosted memory, creativity and intelligence. Further boosted by the drug 87556-UD61."

"Sounds like fun." Beth sighed, laying herself on her back. She grabbed the clipboard and signed it with a quick scribble and handed it to Neustade. Two nurses walked over and proceeded to strap her in. They pulled out an IV and plugged it into her arm, she felt the cool metal enter her arm, there was pain at first, then it went numb, then her arm, followed by her body. Suddenly she was asleep.

_**1350 hours, 20 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Camp Currahee, Beth's quarters**_

__Beth threw up the fifth time that day, as soon as she tried to consume anything it would appear in front her again in under half an hour on the floor. "Fuck my li…" she spewed. Kat, Tom and Lucy were all standing at the doorframe; all three had a massive grin on their face. "What are you three looking a…" another gut wrenching sound was produced.

"Even I wasn't that bad." Lucy spoke. Clasping her hands over her mouth trying to hide her toothy smile.

"It's not like you had the combined experience of all the S-II and S-III augmentations shoved in you in a two days. You had a chance to ad…" she threw up again. Rolling over to her side, immediately regretting her action, her body was still covered in scars, stiches and needle holes that hadn't had all the required time to heal. Every move she made sent pain all over her body. After the she awoke yesterday the pain was so unbearable that she refused to do as much as lift a finger for seven hours.

Her body had felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and preceded to do a number on her until every bone in her body were a multitude of fine glass needles that pierced her muscles. And her muscles, they were felt as if every needle in existence had entered her injecting a cocktail of venom and petrol, then setting It on fire. Her nerves were screaming out in agony begging her to die, it would be less torture for her body to endure.

Tom went and picked her up, slid though the doors and proceeded to lay her on the bed. "You are fucking mental. Taking that all on at once, it could have killed you."

She coughed. "Tom, its not, like, I had much choice did I. I needed to catch up and some brass thought it was a good idea to fill me up with so many chemicals my liver would wither and turn as black as coal."

Kat spoke up. "Someone's the poet."

"Fuck off, Kat." She wined. Kat just made a sarcastic sigh, which tested Beth a little.

They did what she asked, but left a small box at the foot of her bed. On it was a tag that read; _Welcome to the family sis._

_**1355 hours, 20 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Camp Currahee, Corridors**_

"I don't like this one bit." Tom said. "We didn't even know she existed till a week ago and she has already gone through procedures that would have had me shit my self." He put his foot against the wall and folded his arms. He looked at the ceiling knocking his head against the wall softly.

"I hate agreeing with you. But something is off, no one just gets drafted in under a week and becomes a Spartan." Lucy stated. "Even though she has a very clever mind for strategy and has easily grasped UNSC equipment, she looks like a civvie just had a rifle stuck in her hand and told to shoot and kill or be classed as a deserter. That's World War One class cold hearted military discipline."

Kat had her turn at speaking. "Thing is, she doesn't much lee way, she is stuck in a corner by the UNSC, who is themselves stuck in a corner by the Covenant, both Beth and the UNSC want a way to get out alive. She has something they want and she has to give it to them or her life is forfeit, no need for loose ends. And when you are in the situation she is in, who knows what can happen."

"Thing is, it been a while since we have had anyone new to the family." Lucy began. "Now we don't know whether she is going today, tomorrow or ever. And ever since you had your new assignment it seems like you will be gone too." She sighed heavily. "It's a fucking piss take." She slid down on to the floor and curled into a ball.

"Don't worry Luce. You know I can keep care of myself." Kat patted her on her back. "Don't worry. I am not going until the 28th."

She looked up and smiled.

_**0432 hours, 24 January 2544 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Camp Currahee, Gym**_

Beth had got up two hours early that day; she decided that she would have to get back on her fitness schedule after being out for over ten days. She found it surprising that she hadn't lost and muscle mass during her 'rest' period. She had her back fatigues trousers on with a white shirt with the UNSC emblem on it. She wore here black trainers from when she first came to Onyx. The gym was surprisingly full for this time of day; there were a couple of Spartans and some soldiers. She nodded and Matt and James.

She walked over to the bench press; she pulled over the bench and placed it under the weights, put on two twenty-fives. She pushed up. _This feels a little light. _She went up and check. _Definitely fifty._ She put on another two twenty-fives. She sat down and tried again, same result. By now there were a multitude of soldiers and Spartans beginning to form, the super-soldiers had a slight grin on their faces. _They have been through this haven't they? _She proceeded to put on a fifty.

Bracing herself again, she pushed. _Piss easy._ She lifted her self back up and put on all the weights she could fit. _Three hundred and fifty kilograms. _She lay down and pushed. _Finally some decent resistance._ By now a Matt and James had made their way over. "I see you are trying to get used to the post augmentation beast mode." Matt said.

Beth simply glared as she got back up and took some heavier weights of the free weights and added them to the frame. "Lads, could you do me a favour and fuck off, I trying to get fit again." She continued the glare whilst doing her reps, and proceeded to do so until the two were on the other side of the room. She sighed and finished her fist set. She continued to bench press for fifteen more minuets; she got up and decided to go outside for a run.

Stretching herself off, she looked up and saw James and Lucy on the track. She made her way over and began to run, she sped up, and a little more, and more on top of that. She was making a gain on her two mates. Coming in to the right of Tom with Lucy to his, she spoke up. "Good morning."

"Morning" They said in unison, Lucy then continued. "Looking alive."

"Shouldn't I?"

"Touché."

"How are you guys holding up?"

"Fine, we plan to call it in five, hit the showers and get to the mess for about ten past."

"Mind if I join you?"

"Knock yourself out."


End file.
